The Iowa men’s basketball team faced an unfamiliar conundrum inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena Tuesday night against Virginia Tech. The Hawkeyes shot ball exquisitely well from outside — so well, in fact, that sophomore Anthony Tucker made six 3-pointers, only four fewer than he had netted all year — and still lost, 70-64, to the Hokies in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

With Iowa trailing, 63-59, Dorenzo Hudson hit a dagger 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, putting the Hokies up seven with 1:33 left in regulation. A missed triple from freshman Cully Payne and a breakaway dunk from Virginia Tech’s Terrell Bell with 17 seconds remaining essentially sealed the Hawkeyes’s fifth loss of the young season.

Todd Lickliter’s team shot 22-of-49 (44.9 percent) from the floor and 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) from 3-point range but failed to upset the 5-1 Hokies. Tucker finished with a career-high-tying 24 points.

“I’m not into moral victories,” said third-year head coach Todd Lickliter.

For a short time in the second half, however, it looked as if the Hawkeyes might crawl back from their 10-point deficit and upend Seth Greenberg’s squad.

Payne’s second 3-pointer of the night brought the Hawkeyes within one with 8:19 remaining and enlivened the crowd of 8,755. A spinning lay-in by Cole with 6:32 remaining gave Iowa its first lead in 18 minutes.

After the Hokies called a time-out, Greenberg’s team went on an 8-0 run over a two-minute span and regained a 61-54 advantage with 4:32 remaining.

“We can’t have stretches where we don’t score, and we let them get some easy ones in transition,” Tucker said.

Virginia Tech failed to take advantage of Iowa’s five-minute field-goal drought midway through the second half, only scoring six points over that stretch.

The Hawkeyes’ ball movement consistently generated open looks for Iowa shooters. Of the team’s 22 first-half baskets, 19 were created by assists.

Consequently, the 3-pointers that weren’t falling in the team’s first six games began dropping.

Tucker, who was 10-of-44 from long distance coming into Tuesday’s game, nailed two triples in the first 76 seconds. Iowa’s 3-point specialist, senior Devan Bawinkel, also drilled one.

In all, the Hawkeyes started 4-of-8 from 3-point range in the game’s first 9:40.

After Bawinkel’s 3-pointer, Iowa held a 20-15 lead, but a quick 8-0 Virginia Tech spurt gave the Hokies their first lead of the night with 6:17 remaining in the first half. Tucker’s third and fourth 3-pointers of the opening half ended Virginia Tech’s 17-2 run.

The Minnetonka, Minn., native had netted 14 of the Hawkeyes’ 28 points at halftime, but it wasn’t enough to give the Hawkeyes a win.

“It’s been a rough season, a rough start shooting the ball for me obviously,” Tucker said. “It’s good to finally break though that.”